ATP Stimulates Human Macrophages to Kill Intracellular Virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Via Calcium-Dependent Phagosome-Lysosome Fusion

Abstract

Advances in therapy for tuberculosis will require greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and the human immune response in this disease. Exposure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected human macrophages to extracellular ATP (ATPe) results in bacterial killing, but the molecular mechanisms remain incompletely characterized. In this study, we demonstrate that ATPe-induced bactericidal activity toward virulent M. tuberculosis requires an increase in cytosolic Ca2+ in infected macrophages. Based on our previous work with primary infection of human macrophages, we hypothesized that the Ca2+ dependence of ATP-induced killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis was linked to promotion of phagosome-lysosome fusion. Using confocal laser-scanning microscopy, we demonstrate that ATPe induces fusion of the M. tuberculosis-containing phagosome with lysosomes, defined by accumulation of three lysosomal proteins and an acidophilic dye. Stimulation of phagosome-lysosome fusion by ATPe exhibited distinct requirements for both Ca2+ and phospholipase D and was highly correlated with killing of intracellular bacilli. Thus, key signal transduction pathways are conserved between two distinct models of human macrophage antituberculous activity: primary infection of naive macrophages and physiologic stimulation of macrophages stably infected with M. tuberculosis.